ICEBOX Igloo vs Four Season Tent

How to build an igloo with the ICEBOX Igloo Tool

ICEBOX igloo winter camping on Hallet Ridge, RMNP? Igloo camping in the cold has many inherent advantages over a four season tent for snow camping. In addition to the new sense of adventure you’ll experience with the ICEBOX® Igloo. The igloo structure creates a more efficient and practical camping experience. It is also more accommodating when the temperamental whims of nature strike than extreme tents. It has a more constant factor in unpredictable circumstances. The ICEBOX® igloo becomes a sturdy and diverse base of operations. You will have a roomy place to sleep, to store food and keep water from freezing. Safely stow equipment or just lounge about in a climate-controlled environment and shoot the breeze.

In comparison to a four season tent where oscillating wind can pump and rob the inside heat, an igloo stands steady and draft-less. The ICEBOX® weighs less, costs less, and the result simply works better for winter camping in the cold. These are some excellent reasons for strapping an ICEBOX® on your pack versus a four season tent. It just gives a more enjoyable winter camping adventure. Don’t freeze in an extreme tent.

Structural Integrity

The ICEBOX® igloo isn’t going anywhere for awhile. Igloos don’t easily budge, melt, or blow away in the strongest of winds. Wind may whip around it, but won’t uproot it. The ICEBOX® was engineered to create an igloo with a self-supporting catenary curve. This means the ICEBOX® igloo will not collapse in on itself. It uses the opposing forces of ice flow pressure and natural balances of weight to maintain its integrity and structure.

Three people have stood atop an ICEBOX® igloo without it collapsing. (WARNING: standing on top of the igloo could cause injury and is not recommended.) An ICEBOX® igloo will typically last for the length of a season. An igloo built at the beginning of fall, for example, will last well into winter. Ensuing snows will envelop and insulate the igloo and help protect it from the melting rays of the sun.

Warmth

The inside temperature in an ICEBOX® igloo is usually above a balmy 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It will be rarely lower than 20 degrees even in the harshest extremes. Compared to the fluctuating temperatures inside winter tents, there is no competition. An tent is typically 10 degrees warmer than the current outside temperature. Open the flap to venture outside an extreme tent and the inside heat will slip quickly into the great outdoors. If it were ten below zero outside, the temperature inside winter tents would be 0 degrees. The temperature in an ICEBOX® igloo at 10 below zero would still be around 32 degrees. Heat is never lost to a flap opening, and can be easily raised by lighting candles or cooking.

Although a ceiling temperature exceeding 48 degrees is not recommended, it takes a long time to melt an igloo. And fire hazards are not a big issue, you can’t just burn down an ICEBOX® igloo. You can cook inside an igloo by venting carbon monoxide out of a small hole poked through the top of the igloo. Caution: Please Read

Weight

Equipped with straps and buckles to readily attach to a backpack, the ICEBOX Igloo Tool weighs in at less than five pounds. The average four-season tent weighs in the range of seven to nine pounds. Additional pack-in weight is routinely accumulated from the type of sleeping bag needed within a winter backpacking tent environment. Due to the fluctuating temperature variance inside a tent, and depending on the area of the country where you’re camping, a sleeping bag rated at 20 below zero or lower is typical. In an ICEBOX® igloo a sleeping bag rated at 0 to 20 degrees above zero, being a pound or more less in weight, is all it takes to be warm and comfortable.

Total pack-in weight shed while winter backpacking using the ICEBOX® would fall in the range of three to five pounds while winter backpacking. This weight savings can make a big difference while back country skiing.

Elbow and Head Room

With ample room to spare, the ICEBOX® igloo has more floor space for occupants than a tent with extra space to stow your gear which is then protected within its friendly confines. The ICEBOX® igloo tool builds five sizes of igloos with inside floor diameters of seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven feet. (You decide the size of the igloo you want and adjust the guide pole that builds it accordingly.) The total square footage offered by the different sized igloos gives a choice of 38, 50, 63, 78, and 95 square ft.

The seven foot ICEBOX® igloo will accommodate one person and gear. One person can be added with each increase in size of the igloo with the eleven foot igloo big enough for five people and their gear. The igloos are tall enough for most people to stand up in and get dressed after a peaceful night’s sleep. No more scrunching and kneeling down like in a tent. So stretch out, relax, take it easy, because you can.

Quiet and comfy

The ICEBOX®-built igloos winter camping on Hallet ridge RMNP contains many inherent advantages over a four season tent for snow camping . In addition to the new sense of adventure you’ll experience with the ICEBOX®, the igloo structure created is more efficient and practical, more accommodating when the temperamental whims of nature strike, and is a more constant factor in unpredictable circumstances. The ICEBOX® igloo becomes a sturdy, diverse base of operations: a roomy place to sleep, to store food and water to prevent freezing, to stow equipment, to cook, or to just lounge about in a climate-controlled environment and shoot the breeze.

In comparison to a four season tent, where oscillating wind can pump and rob the inside heat making your teeth can chatter, the ICEBOX® weighs less, costs less, and the result simply works better for snow camping.These are some excellent reasons for strapping an ICEBOX® on your pack instead of a four season tent for your snow camping pleasure:

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About us

ICEBOX® Igloo Building Tool For Igloo Snow Shelter Building. Igloo/Snow camping is an adventure rooted in ancient traditions. Grand Shelters has brought this ancient tradition to the mainstream by developing a tool to make building an igloo easier. The ICEBOX® Tool has been used thousands of times all over the world.